ImpulseZeo9201 Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 I'm just recovering from a major fall. I broke my leg and ankle in three places, tore all my ligaments off my foot, going down a somewhat steep hill in SF. I am 240 lbs/ 105kg and I assume the thing couldn't handle me. I was on a GW V3 and my motor just cut out and there goes my leg.. I was not going fast a steady 6mph breaking on a maybe 10-12 degree slope when all of the sudden it cut out and yeah.. I found out that there are not only limits to how fast but also on how much breaking or voltage or whatever you can draw from those machines. I highly recommend wearing boots, motorcycle or very solid ankle protecting boots like the once worn by EMS personal to avoid having to deal with the ligament damage not to mention fractures.. Will I ride again? Probably but avoid those hills Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litewave Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Ouch. Very sorry to hear about your accident, but very grateful that you are letting others know. Hope you recover completely to ride again soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litewave Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Here's my plug again for ankle protectors / stabilisers. Not sure how much they would help @ImpulseZeo9201 but I swear by them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImpulseZeo9201 Posted November 15, 2016 Author Share Posted November 15, 2016 Oh yeah, I wish I had them. They look like they could have at least kept my ankle in one piece. . Yeah kids wear your stuff or else you might get hurt.. BAD!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Westland Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Ouch! So sorry to hear this, and I sympathize as I'm still healing from a EUC-induced shoulder dislocation. I've always thought that SF might be a bit dodgy for EUC's; my daughter lives there and I have biked and walked all over the city ... those hills are imposing. I actually still have all of my motorcycle gear, including kangaroo leathers, light mesh jackets, gloves, 4 pairs of boots, and 6 helmets. Most of the stuff is too heavy for EUC's, but next when I'm back on the EUC I'm going to try a very nice mesh jacket I bought in Japan with plastic protectors, some Sidi mid-ankle boots and my ski helmet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houseofjob Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Wow, sorry to hear and hope you have a fast recovery~ Were you braking on a full battery perhaps? I ask because it's imperative you don't ride downhill on a full battery, as the regenerative braking will surge back into the the battery with nowhere to go (as the battery is full) thus resulting in BMS cutout to protect your battery from fire, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Spalding Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 1 hour ago, ImpulseZeo9201 said: I'm just recovering from a major fall. I broke my leg and ankle in three places, tore all my ligaments off my foot, going down a somewhat steep hill in SF. I am 240 lbs/ 105kg and I assume the thing couldn't handle me. I was on a GW V3 and my motor just cut out and there goes my leg.. I was not going fast a steady 6mph breaking on a maybe 10-12 degree slope when all of the sudden it cut out and yeah.. I found out that there are not only limits to how fast but also on how much breaking or voltage or whatever you can draw from those machines. I highly recommend wearing boots, motorcycle or very solid ankle protecting boots like the once worn by EMS personal to avoid having to deal with the ligament damage not to mention fractures.. Will I ride again? Probably but avoid those hills I am so sorry for your accident Thank you for relating as much as the situation is you could preceding this event to us As you can see, I own the same wheel and I am troubled by this particular occurrence I am only in the learning stages but always where my motorcycle boots and I'm glad you brought that up here Please recover quickly and become an active member of this forum because we would appreciate that The very best to you, always Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunka Hunka Burning Love Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Sorry to hear about the injury! Your accident does bring up some questions about the weight limits on these EUCs. It does sound like the 240 pounds going at slow speed was just too much for the motor to handle. I wonder if there is a surge of high current that overloads the BMS causing a shutdown. Were you braking quite hard or making any sudden backwards lean movements? With hilly cities, I wonder if it is prudent to have a tether to help bring the wheel to a stop. I can imagine a 50 pound out of control toppling wheel gaining speed on a downhill towards a group of school children or mothers with babies in strollers crossing the road... it doesn't take much for these EUCs to get a bad rep and of course what follows next it that the legislators put a ban on them. There just hasn't been controlled studies that I have seen about what overloading does to a wheel going down a hill. It would be interesting to see what the metrics are like with various weights going down the same hill. The manufacturers give weight limits, but are they just for flat roads? Do they take into account going downhill or uphill and at what speed / acceleration / braking rates? When you break it all down it's just a bunch of small neodymium magnets and the force of electromagnetic attraction / repulsion from little copper coils acting in groups that are expected to stop a lot of weight on an otherwise free spinning axle bearing. Just imagine yourself on the bottom end of a 50 pound balancing wheel barrow going down a hill that has a 250 weight in it going at 6 KPH and try to prevent it from speeding up. Anyone good at physics want to figure out how much energy is required to keep a steady 6 KPH speed for a 250 pound rider with a 50 pound wheel while fighting against the acceleration of gravity? @MoNo? I'm guessing quite a bit! What happens when you increase that rider weight or increase the speed going downhill? How hard can a regular rider brake while going downhill? If braking too fast on a flat road can blow MOSFETS, would braking really hard from the same traveling speed on a downhill increase the likelihood of MOSFET burnout? I would tend to think so as the wheel would be fighting against the acceleration of gravity component in addition to the rider's weight. Riding these wheels is like a big multi-factored physics experiment where we are the guinea pigs. EUCs are fun to ride, but when the physics goes wrong in a bad way we pay for it in injuries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
who_the Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Thanks for sharing, very sorry to hear, huge wishes for a fast recovery. I'm in San Francisco (born and raised), care to share where this happened? I commute daily up and down some pretty big hills (Church Street over 21st), though hardly our city's steepest. Had you been riding long (or perhaps uphill) before the cut-out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TremF Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Sorry to hear about your very painful experience I hope you recover well and the ligaments heal well. I personally always wear a pair of black Lowa Combat boots. They come lightly higher up the ankle than standard boots so feel very supportive and with how sturdy they are have saved me a few times when I've had a wobble that would possibly have had me off my ACM if I was in trainers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerbera Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 22 minutes ago, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said: What happens when you increase that rider weight or increase the speed going downhill? How hard can a regular rider brake while going downhill? If braking too fast on a flat road can blow MOSFETS, would braking really hard from the same traveling speed on a downhill increase the likelihood of MOSFET burnout? I would tend to think so as the wheel would be fighting against the acceleration of gravity component in addition to the rider's weight. Riding these wheels is like a big multi-factored physics experiment where we are the guinea pigs. EUCs are fun to ride, but when the physics goes wrong in a bad way we pay for it in injuries. So.... when going downhill, we should go faster, so that we stress the MOSFETs less ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunka Hunka Burning Love Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 That is a difficult question without more parameters I think like rider weight, hill steepness, battery level, rate of deceleration, etc. In the OP's case I think it would have been more dangerous possibly. If his wheel couldn't handle braking downhill at 6 kph I doubt it could do better at 35 kph? Or maybe it would be the same result happening, but just at higher speed? (Just guessing here) I think for lighter riders keeping speeds low to medium high should be fine while remembering that going downhill will speed you up more due to gravity. It can be easy to accidentally overspeed if you are gunning it over the crest of a hill and then speed up over the wheel's terminal speed where torque becomes zero. I'm not an expert in the field, but looking at @zlymex's hill graphs I think the higher speed does help regenerate power more due to higher reverse current potential. I wouldn't advise going down a hill near top cruising speed. Maybe half to 3/4 speed would be prudent. Does anyone know if an increase in rider weight increases the downhill reverse current amplitude, or is it more speed related? Braking hard seems to stress MOSFETs out as there have been a few cases where someone braked too hard and blew their controller. Repeated back and forth motions can also heat them up as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rehab1 Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 22 hours ago, ImpulseZeo9201 said: I'm just recovering from a major fall. I broke my leg and ankle in three places, tore all my ligaments off my foot, going down a somewhat steep hill in SF. I am 240 lbs/ 105kg and I assume the thing couldn't handle me. I was on a GW V3 and my motor just cut out and there goes my leg.. Omg! That is terrible news! You sustained some pretty tough injuries! I'm so sorry man! You need to Stay Positive throughout your recovery! At least your alive! Your injuries will heal in time! Be well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 9 hours ago, ImpulseZeo9201 said: I'm just recovering from a major fall. I broke my leg and ankle in three places, tore all my ligaments off my foot, going down a somewhat steep hill in SF. I am 240 lbs/ 105kg and I assume the thing couldn't handle me. I was on a GW V3 and my motor just cut out and there goes my leg.. I was not going fast a steady 6mph breaking on a maybe 10-12 degree slope when all of the sudden it cut out and yeah.. I found out that there are not only limits to how fast but also on how much breaking or voltage or whatever you can draw from those machines. I highly recommend wearing boots, motorcycle or very solid ankle protecting boots like the once worn by EMS personal to avoid having to deal with the ligament damage not to mention fractures.. Will I ride again? Probably but avoid those hills I'm sorry about your accident , it makes m wonder Performance of the electric wheel Gotway MSuper 3: Maximum speed advertised by the manufacturer: 40 km / h Autonomy announced by the manufacturer: 90 km Real autonomy in town for 70 kg: 40-50 km 820wh Wheel size: 18 inches Maximum load: 120 kg Engine power: nominal 1500W / 3000W (peak power) Battery Lithium: 820 Wh Maximum inclination: 25 ° Net weight: 19.6 kg for 820wh Product certified “CE electric unicycle self-balancing” with 1500 w nominal effect then it should be stronger than my kingsong 18a with only 1200w nominal effect , you were going in slow speed , it means you should have alot of power to handle your weight , I was 107 kg when I went up and down a very step skiing mountain without problem , the only thing im afraid of is the sky falling down on me and if I go to fast near 40 kmh , then cut out might happen , thats why I now never go faster than 31 kmh , I can recommend KingSong 18A to everyone KingSong 18A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomad Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 So sorry to hear that must have hurt. I really wish you heal well! It helps to keep us aware these lovely things can become your enemy in an instant, like any other vehicle slow or fast. We don't have elevator motors or geared designs like the Segway so less torque for us. Lesson I guess don't underestimate gravity especially heavy riders take extra care. Hurting yourself is bad enough but at least your 20kg EUC did not start free rolling down the hill hitting someone while gaining up to 50 km/h (With a small bounce it will easily fly at head level of a child!) So a leash fastened to the handle and to your belt might be a good idea for SF hill riders... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 4 minutes ago, nomad said: So sorry to hear that must have hurt. I really wish you heal well! It helps to keep us aware these lovely things can become your enemy in an instant, like any other vehicle slow or fast. We don't have elevator motors or geared designs like the Segway so less torque for us. Lesson I guess don't underestimate gravity especially heavy riders take extra care. Hurting yourself is bad enough but at least your 20kg EUC did not start free rolling down the hill hitting someone while gaining up to 50 km/h (With a small bounce it will easily fly at head level of a child!) So a leash fastened to the handle and to your belt might be a good idea for SF hill riders... Hi It won't freeroll on a cut out , I dont think an euc can freeroll on a slope , for children fastgoing cars and suvs will be the real danger so lets hope everybody buy an euc today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomad Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 9 minutes ago, FLASH said: Hi It won't freeroll on a cut out , I dont think an euc can freeroll on a slope , for children fastgoing cars and suvs will be the real danger so lets hope everybody buy an euc today Actually if it starts tumbling down a steep slope it could in the unlikely event rotate in a way that it reactivates and starts balancing again, extremely unlikely but still possible! Because it does not require pushing the button to reactivate the motor, there is a delay so it has to keep upright for a second or so first but still it will do it automatically after fall down. Also you might want to dismount because the speed can't be kept down, before reaching too high speed to do it gracefully... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donafello Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 So sorry to hear that. I wish you a full recovery. I also have a v3 but the 1640wh chinese model and i'm coming from a V2 HS which was my first unicycle ever. This is very scary to hear about all these V3 failures. i dont ever remember seeing or hearing that many issues with the V2 Msuper. Now I think some of what we are seeing is the fact that Gotway has seemed to sell so many more units as a lot of people have jumped on the Msuper bandwagon which would deff cause a spike in reports of failures. But regardless it's scary to know that these issues are there and can show there face any time. I'm a very aggressive rider as far as speed goes. I'm always riding to the last alarm on my units and I hover right around there. Now as anyone knows to take a spill at last alarm is going to be painful and not something anyone wants to happen. My questions I would like to have answered to better understand what happened is 1- How much charge did the batteries have when the failure happened? 2- How long were you riding for before this happened? 3- When this did happen were you on a really big hill and just at the top or at the bottom? I don't think anyone can say exactly what happened but i think with these questions answered we might be able to make a good guess. But get better and when you have some time maybe you can give us some more info. Feel better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flash Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 27 minutes ago, nomad said: Actually if it starts tumbling down a steep slope it could in the unlikely event rotate in a way that it reactivates and starts balancing again, extremely unlikely but still possible! Because it does not require pushing the button to reactivate the motor, there is a delay so it has to keep upright for a second or so first but still it will do it automatically after fall down. Also you might want to dismount because the speed can't be kept down, before reaching too high speed to do it gracefully... I wonder if someone have tried to push an euc down a hill to see what happens ? , still I think the risk is small , to prevent this then someone needs to invent something maybe with Bluetooth that turns off the euc when its to far away from driver , on boats there is a strap that unplug power if you fell into the sea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volavoile Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Welcome to the other part of the frontier..... There are two kind of EUC riders.... the one who have already eaten the road..... and,... the one who will! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImpulseZeo9201 Posted November 15, 2016 Author Share Posted November 15, 2016 Hi, Thank you for all the nice comments. I try to answer all the questions. I am not quite sure on which hill it happened but it was not the steepest I've been going down. I am steadily breaking down the hill at around 6-7mph, the hill was maybe a block in length, and have been going up and down some I would say 10 hills on my morning ride (not my usual route). I always charge the batteries overnight and on my commute there is a good mile or two straight I ride only. I did not know about the regenerative braking. I am a fairly new rider just have had the EUC (my first) for a week and a half. As for the battery status, I'd say I was going up so many hills and of course down, that I cant really tell how much of a charge it could have had. And the accident happened at the last quarter of the hill. Whenever there's people I'm extra cautious as well as when there's some popo going reaaally slow. If my accident has told me anything than its that if I go for a ride Its Imperative to protect your ankles as they're the first to touch the ground and there's NO! time to react. Other protective gear I believe is definitely a good Idea too as our bodies are as fragile as a I don't know what. And Unicycles don't offer any option for emergency maneuvers. At least I cant imagine. There I am thinking to myself: Those poor suckers walking, up and down those hills while I show off the future. Luckily nobody saw my fall but I was just thinking about the possible limits when it cut out. A fun machine but one that needs to be respected, i.E with precautious measures. I really like the ankle bracer idea as they are somewhat stealth. If you got more questions please ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volavoile Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Have a quick recovery! It took me 7 months for my shoulder! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImpulseZeo9201 Posted November 15, 2016 Author Share Posted November 15, 2016 Thanks , Im a fast healer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Launchpad Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 +1 on the ankle support. I sprained my ankle going about 2 miles an hour on flat asphalt about two hours into my initial learning period. Just tripped off the wheel wrong and rotated my foot inwards, lots of swelling and big purple bruises. On the bright side my helmet, knee, wrist, and elbow pads came through completely untouched. Hope you get well quickly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImpulseZeo9201 Posted November 15, 2016 Author Share Posted November 15, 2016 Thanks, Yeah our feet are our most important body parts. I always thought myself as tough and indestructible, to some degree, but being so close to the ground accidents tend to be rather severe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.